


Light and Shadows

by PuellaMidori



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-13 21:52:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11194176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuellaMidori/pseuds/PuellaMidori
Summary: AU starting from Once More With Feeling. After Faith learns (belatedly) that Buffy had died she makes her way to Sunnydale to see what's what. The only problem is that once she gets she not only finds Buffy to be very much alive, but gets herself whammied into putting some of her deepest feelings for the other Slayer into song after Buffy answers her phone call. Poor life decisions are subsequently made, and things get messy between the two girls.





	Light and Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda building off a video I did for Buffyverse Femslash Week but it's not like you need to go seek it out and watch it or anything. The gist of it was just Faith coming to Sunnydale and giving Buffy a musical dose of good ol' lust over the phone. Meant to be a quick one-shot but then my brain was like "nah fuck that" and instead this turned into "Chapter One". When's the rest coming? Possibly some time in the next decade, or maybe not. Disclaimer I have no idea if something like this has been done before or not (and if so it'll probably be better than anything coming from my unskilled hands) and once I decided to start writing this I made a point of not looking to find out.

Faith took a breath and opened her mouth once more. What came out this time was plain words. A welcome relief. She wasn’t sure what would have happened to the poor phone in her hand if she’d kept up with the singing. “So, heard you died. Actually that’s why I came here. But I guess you’re, uh, back.”

“God, why am I always the recipient of these dramatic solo numbers? Can’t I ever get a word in edgewise with somebody anymore? Participate in the conversation a little?” Not to mention, she added silently, what did she have to do to get rid of the neon sign apparently floating over her head reading ‘attention: seeking companionship with a violent and ambiguously evil type’? 

“Something you wanna talk about, B?”

“No.” Buffy shook her head and repeated herself for emphasis. “And certainly not something I want to sing about either, so this spell or whatever better not get any ideas. Anyway, I’d better get back to the gang, try and figure out the song thing that’s going around. It’s really starting to get on my nerves. Um, no offense. You have a surprisingly good singing voice. But that might just be part of the spell thing. You can swing by the Magic Box if you want.” After everything that had happened to her since Faith had last been in Sunnydale she figured it was only fair to give her a second chance. Everyone else seemed to get them around here, including, maybe not so happily, Buffy herself. 

“Nah, better not. Not sure they’re real keen on having me around again, especially considering I didn’t find out you were dead until, well, you weren’t. I’ll probably just skip town and we can pretend like I was never even here tonight, deal?” That sounded like the best plan, for more reasons than one. Faith hadn’t wanted to say those things to Buffy when she heard her voice. Okay, well, yes she’d wanted to, but not… not like that, not out loud, not in song! Not to mention she knew damn well Buffy wouldn’t want to hear all that “come hither” bullshit from her. Maybe from one of her boy toys, who knew what she was up to on that angle these days, but certainly not from her. What the hell was wrong with her anyway? It was like, she’d opened her mouth and the words just kept tumbling out without her permission while she was yelling inside, “No! Stop! I take it back!” Buffy hadn’t exactly explained what was up with that, but it sounded like she’d been dealing with it all day or something. Well, whatever. A little impromptu singing and dancing couldn’t be all that bad for the town as a whole. Some damaged pride and hurt feelings, sure, but not life threatening. Nothing they’d need Faith to stick around for, that was certain. She could just head out, right?

Faith didn’t just head out though, and she’d known she wouldn’t. She’d at least stay the night. After all she’d already checked into the motel and there was no point in wasting the cash. She didn’t go to the magic box either though. She was a little curious about what the deal was with Sunnydale: The Musical, sure, but not curious enough. Instead she just walked through the town, vaguely Bronze-bound while she took in the scenery. Here and there she saw people singing, or dancing, or singing and dancing. ‘Man, I picked the wrong time to blow into town,’ she thought. ‘This shit’s eerie.’ She drew up towards her destination and was surprised at how empty the place seemed, considering it was (or had been) the only cool place in town. Wasn’t this place supposed to be open practically all hours of the night or something? Guess when you’re stuck in a musical you don’t really have time to go out and enjoy other people’s music. Or something. No line though, that was a good thing. Except that the place wasn’t actually open that night and nobody had given Faith the memo, apparently, since it seemed to be populated entirely by Buffy & co. and their typical demonic type of plus ones. More singing and dancing than usual, but that seemed to be Sunnydale today. Faith slipped back out the way she came, glad everyone had seemed too wrapped up to notice her entrance. So much for that entertainment plan. 

Faith being Faith, and not knowing when to leave well enough alone, got herself nicely hidden away in the shadows where she could still see the exit and decided she’d just wait and see what happened when everything was over. Maybe she’d be able to catch Buffy alone, maybe manage a quick catch-up conversation that didn’t involve singing. What were the odds of finding her walking out all alone? Well, Faith chose not to think about that. Math never was her favourite class. 

Faith recognized the first figure she saw leaving the club, but it wasn’t one of Buffy’s regular’s, was it? At least, not from when she was around. So what was the connection she was missing here? Wait, no, she had it. That guy from the Bronze she met while she was driving around in Buffy’s body! Some kind of vampire that couldn’t hurt people, or some crap? How was he involved in this? Good side or bad? Then again, which of those words applied to her? Faith’s typical impulsivity stood aside and her curiosity kept her hidden where she was. Besides, she’d had fun teasing the guy last time they’d met, and once she was sure he wasn’t looking for a fight maybe she could follow up for some more. 

At least, that thought was in the back of Faith’s mind until she watched Buffy appear and get her happy ending on with the guy. Hey, guess that answered the question of who else had been serenading her at least. What it didn’t seem to answer for her was pretty much anything else. She backed off a couple steps, deciding she wanted to be anywhere but where she was, watching anything else. She’d catch Buffy later, before she left town again. She’d catch Buffy never, pretend she’d never come. She’d… whatever, she’d figure that part somewhere else. She took off, forgetting she was supposed to be being quiet and stealthy about all this. The noise she kicked up startled the two she’d left behind, and by the time Faith was barely out of hearing range they’d broken apart from each other. 

“I should, ah, go. Be somewhere else. That isn’t here. Alone.” Buffy’s legs took her from the scene of the crime without giving her brain a chance to think any further than it had, without giving her head a chance to turn back over her shoulder. They quickly started up into a run, leaving Spike standing stunned and speechless. 

He heard a voice from behind him, couldn’t even tell which, asking where Buffy was. “Beats me,” he replied, already starting to walk away, glaring his own stupid legs into submission. “Just ran off without a word to me about anything. Not even a thank you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buffy was finally starting to fall asleep when she heard knocking on her bedroom window. “Oh great,” she thought, considering ignoring it but finally getting out of bed when she realized it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. “Oh great,” she muttered out loud when she saw who was outside, but she opened it anyway, and turned on the lights. 

“So, heard you were bangin’ vamps again, B.”

“Thought you were leaving town again F.”

“Decided I just couldn’t go without checking up on my favourite slayer face-to-face. Not to mention I realized I’d kinda already paid the motel for the night, and if I’m actually paying for things I figured I oughta stick around and use ‘em, right?”

“Well, that sure clears up why you’re outside my bedroom window then, doesn’t it?” 

“I already told ya, wanted to see my girl, fresh out of the grave and all. Or maybe not so fresh? I dunno, news seems to take it’s time reaching me. Have to say though B, you don’t look so good.”

“It’s late, I’m tired, what do you want, Faith?”

Faith started crawling through the open window, while Buffy just stood back and let her, not happy but accepting it. That was how she felt about a lot of things lately, wasn’t it? Well, this sucks but I guess I’m supposed to let it happen. Every day.

“I just wanna hang. Kinda like old times. Okay, no, maybe not like old times. What’s wrong? You nervous cause I found out your secret or something?” If she was honest with herself, Faith wasn’t really sure herself why she had come. She certainly hadn’t been planning for a confrontation, but neither was she exactly surprised at herself for initiating it. They never were able to get along together. Not unless there was something to kill, and even that didn’t guarantee smoothness. 

“I don’t have a secret Faith. So just- just go back to your motel room and make use of that money you spent!” 

“Oh, I get it. Guess you don’t mind if I tell anyone I run into on my way out that I saw you making out with that Spike guy, if there’s no secret.” Faith threatened this as she strode purposefully through the bedroom, heading for the door, but inside her own head she was screaming at herself, ‘what are you doing you idiot you think this is the way to get her to trust you to like you shut up!’

What little colour Buffy had to her face disappeared as Faith’s hand reached for the door. She blinked, feeling tears waiting behind her eyes. “No. Faith, wait,” she whispered. She stood there for a moment, trying to find her voice again. “It- it was just the one time. It wasn’t even anything, really! And there was definitely no ‘banging’.”

“Oh, so you don’t just get hot for anybody that could probably kill you given half a-“ Faith stopped short when she saw Buffy’s face, realized she’d taken it too far. “Hey, look, it’s okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like- okay , I did mean it but- I won’t tell anyone. Promise. Come on B, you’ll be okay. You can talk to me.”

Buffy turned away and moved back towards the bed. “You wouldn’t get it Faith. Nobody else does! How it feels…”

“There’s nobody else in the world like the two of us, and you’re telling me I can’t understand how you feel? Of course not, I never was good enough for you, was I? Well I’ll tell you what I do understand, and it’s what’ll happen if guys like him get you thinkin’ they’re the only person in the world you can turn to. They swallow you up! I don’t understand what you’ve been through, okay, I sure as hell never died, but don’t act like you can understand me any better.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about! I’m supposed to be taking advice from you?”

“Man, what did they do to you? Brought you back from the dead, huh? What happened to you?” Buffy didn’t respond. “Fine, whatever, guess I’ll just see myself out the same way I came in then. And don’t bother looking for me in the morning.” The whole way back to the motel all Faith could hear was the sound of her own voice, asking her what the hell she was trying to accomplish going over there, asking her what the hell had happened in this town since she’d been gone, asking her a dozen more questions she’d never have the answers to. By the time she threw herself down on the cheap bed it felt like she’d been holding her breath all the way there.


End file.
